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the Mountain Goats: April 2, 2016 College Street Music Hall, New Haven CT

April 5, 2016

The Mountain Goats‘ current tour is called the “Brine Crypt Exodus” and it was inspired by a very special night last April when the band played a show at City Winery with a pared-down stage show. While not quite “unplugged”, the set stripped down the Mountain Goats to the basics and the result was an incredible inspired set that we were very fortunate to have captured.

The second night of the tour reached New Haven Connecticut on Saturday night in a fairly large theater in the center of town. The College Street Music Hall sits about a half block from the south border of the campus of Yale University and its in the “theater district” — indeed the location was not even a rock venue until May of 2015. The result of the recent upgrade of the facility is that the hall is outfitted with a customized state of the art sound system and prime seating configurations that compliment the acoustics and classic charm of the vintage theater. We agree with the person on our twitter feed that College Street is one of the best locations in the tri-state area to experience a concert.

With that backdrop and with the opening night of the tour (Woodstock) under their belts, the Mountain Goats began this show inspired and fully in sync with each other. The band is currently a quartet and each member shined throughout this night. The addition of multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas permits the band to add keys, horns or an extra guitar to fortify the sound. Jon Wurster on drums and Peter Hughes on bass are simply one of the best rhythm sections around these days. Since this tour is technically not in support of any new release, the Mountain Goats also felt unfettered when it came to song selection. As a result, the setlist was culled from the deep recesses of the back catalog and we saw songs we’d never experienced before in our two dozen Mountain Goats shows.

The Mountain Goats will return to NYC later this month for three shows at the City Winery, where they played to great success last year. The shows are all sold-out but if by chance a ticket falls your way, don’t miss these nights.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted inside of the soundboard area and blended that capture with a soundboard feed mixed expertly by long-time touring FOH Brandon Eggleston. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC or MP3 at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Mountain Goats
2016-04-02
College Street Music Hall
New Haven CT

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Brandon Eggleston] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:31:32]
01 Woke Up New
02 Until I Am Whole
03 Maize Stalk Drinking Blood
04 Damn These Vampires
05 See America Right
06 Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise [Trembling Blue Stars]
07 Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan
08 [banter – sketches]
09 You’re in Maya
10 [banter – whatever you want]
11 From TG and Y
12 [banter – TRAP laws]
13 Wizard Level
14 Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
15 [banter – Holiday Inn Express]
16 Get Lonely
17 New Monster Avenue
18 [banter – wonder buddy]
19 First Few Desperate Hours
20 Oceanographer’s Choice
21 The Young Thousands
22 [encore break]
23 No Children
24 Up the Wolves
25 This Year
26 [second encore break]
27 Spent Gladiator 2

SUPPORT the Mountain Goats: Website | Twitter | Buy Official Releases | Tour Dates

NYCTaper Upcoming Schedule: Spring/Summer 2016

April 4, 2016

By nyctaper

Its been over three months since we last posted a schedule, so here is the latest. A lot of great additions, including a whole new set of shows at our home venue Market Hotel.

Caveat: Below is the updated schedule. We expect to attend and record these events. However, circumstances will prevent some of these from being done, and others will be added in the meantime. Feel free to make suggestions or point out shows we missed or invite us to your shows!

Schedule:

Acid Mothers Temple:
April 5, 2016 Mercury Lounge NYC

Acid Mothers Temple:
April 6, 2016 Knitting Factory BK

River Cult:
April 8, 2016 Acheron BK

Yo La Tengo:
April 9, 2016 Loew’s Theater, Jersey City NJ

Waco Brothers:
April 13, 2016 Union Hall BK

Melvins:
April 14, 2016 Music Hall of Williamsburg

the Mountain Goats:
April 17, 18, 19, 2016 City Winery NYC

Ryley Walker & Charles Rumback:
April 20, 2016 Union Pool BK

Surface to Air Missive:
April 21, 2016 Trans-Pecos Queens

The Thermals:
April 28, 2016 Market Hotel BK

Thurston Moore:
April 28, 2016 Rough Trade BK

Muuy Bien:
May 4, 2016 Shea Stadium BK

Woods / Ultimate Painting:
May 7, 2016 Music Hall of Williamsburg

Ought / Palberta:
May 8, 2016 Rough Trade BK

Heartless Bastards:
May 10, 2016 Music Hall of Williamsburg

La Sera:
May 11, 2016 Market Hotel BK

Fruit Bats:
May 12, 2016 Rough Trade BK

Dead Meadow / Creepoid:
May 12, 2016 Saint Vitus BK (permission pending)

Dead Meadow / Creepoid:
May 13, 2016 Saint Vitus BK (permission pending)

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard:
May 14, 2016 Bowery Ballroom NYC

Bent Shapes / Journalism:
May 21, 2016 Trans-Pecos Queens

Palehound:
May 25, 2016 Baby’s All Right BK

Heron Oblivion / Chris Forsyth:
May 28, 2016 Union Pool BK

Alejandro Escovedo:
May 31, 2016 City Winery NYC

Mountain Jam:
June 2-5, 2016 Hunter Mountain

Son Little:
June 9, 2016 Bowery Ballroom NYC

Kevin Morby:
June 22, 2016 Rough Trade BK

So So Glos:
June 25, 2016 Market Hotel BK

Drive Like Jehu:
August 11, 2016 Bell House BK (permission pending)

Shearwater: March 15, 2016 Rough Trade (Bowie’s Lodger album)

March 23, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by PSquared Photography]

Last month we captured a really outstanding performance by Shearwater at the Mercury Lounge. The show was in the early stages of the band’s tour in support of its superb new album Jet Plane and Oxbow and it featured most of the new album in a tour de force evening. But one of the non-album highlights of the night was the band’s cover of David Bowie’s “Look Back in Anger” from the Lodger album. We learned that night that Shearwater had rehearsed the entire album and upon their return to NYC, would play it live.

Last week at Rough Trade, Shearwater offered a gift to their fans — a free show at a great venue that consisted of that previously promised Lodger show. Jonathan Meiburg has discussed how this fairly obscure late-70s Bowie work helped him personally through some difficult times, but for this performance Meiburg discussed many of the aspects of the album in detail in segments in between the songs. Lodger is the last of the trio of Bowie albums produced in collaboration with Brian Eno, and as expected the Eno influence is all over this record particularly in a kind of world music feel. But the addition of legendary guitarist Adrian Belew also added more of a rock feel to this album as compared with the previous two records in the trilogy, Heroes and Low. The guitar based songs on the album gave Jonathan an opportunity to stretch out and use his pedals liberally. He remarked at the end of the show that he’d never used his phaser so often. While the band has rehearsed these songs and played a few of them at earlier shows, we learned that this was the first time that Shearwater has played the album start to finish. But you wouldn’t know — the songs were well played and the band was tight and the set was a fitting tribute to the late legend.

I recorded this set as I have all my previous trips to this venue — Schoeps cards mounted in the center of the Soundboard booth and mixed with an excellent feed, this time mixed superbly by the band’s touring FOH Jay. The sound quality is quite excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show (banter tracks removed):

Shearwater
2016-03-15
Rough Trade
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer: Jay] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 47:28]
01 Fantastic Voyage
02 [banter – Lodger]
03 African Night Flight
04 Move On
05 Yassassin
06 [banter – Adrian Belew]
07 Red Sails
08 [banter – singles in the middle]
09 DJ
10 Look Back in Anger
11 [band introductions]
12 Boys Keep Swinging
13 [banter – SNL]
14 Repetition
15 [thanks]
16 Red Money

SUPPORT Shearwater: Website | Facebook | Twitter | BUY Jet Plane and Oxbow

craw: March 12, 2016 Saint Vitus

March 17, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by PSquared Photography]

Ohio is an interesting place. In some ways its an Eastern industrial state and in other ways its an agricultural Midwestern state. Its a state with large cities and large swaths of farmlands. Its largest metropolitan area of Cleveland is itself a unique place which is geographically both a lake city and a river city. Despite that Cleveland also happens to be the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it’s music has always indicated a similar off-kilter personality. Its most well known punk band was also one of the first art-rock outfits — Pere Ubu. Its early 70’s classic rock band was also a unique mix of jazz and blues — The Numbers Band. Its 80s alternative band was also a “gunk punk” act — Death of Samantha. And its 90s hardcore band was also its 90s metal band — the inimitable craw.

Even craw‘s reunion didn’t follow the standard script. We’ve seen a ton of these 80s and 90s band reunions. Generally speaking, the usual scenario is that the continued existence of a cabal of fans manages to finally convince a band of some repute to bury the hatchet and reuite. Most times the band enters the reunion with the advantages of maturity and sobriety and does their legacy proud. But the craw reunion was in large part the result of one uber fan who grew up to be a respected journalist and musician himself. Hank Shteamer is a senior editor at Rolling Stone and he plays in the bands Aa (Big A little a) and STATS, but as a teenager he was one of a few very rabid craw fans who saw the band repeatedly. His fanship never went away, and as outlined in this excellent Observer piece, when Hank teamed up with local record label Northern Spy the pairing produced 1993-1997, a remastered box set of craw’s long out of print first three records along with a 200-page book with an essential history of the band. The final piece of the puzzle was realized when craw agreed to play two reunion shows, one of course in Cleveland and the other at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn.

I arrived early on Saturday to record the show at Saint Vitus and was immediately met with the good news that the venue was sold out. As the crowd filtered in during the opening sets, it was an interesting amalgam of various types of people of various ages and styles, and as we found out when the band took the stage, from various geographical areas — people traveled from far and wide to see this show. But the crowd did all have one thing in common, they were there to hear the music, as all attention was focused forward to the stage and there’s almost no talking on this recording. craw took the stage and immediately recognized the large contingent of traveling fans before launching directly into a lengthy “Caught My Tell” from their still-in-print 2002 album Bodies for Strontium 90, and then stuck with that album for the next few songs. The remainder of the show consisted of material that appears on the current box set as the songs were roughly grouped by album in reverse-chronological order. By the time craw reached their self-titled debut album and one of its highlights “405”, the show was virtually complete. While craw didn’t leave the stage, the final two “encore” numbers were performed by the entire 7-piece band the represented every player who had appeared on all of their albums.

For a band that hadn’t performed live in the better part of a decade, and who has always relied on mathematical precision in their riffs, this show was phenomenally tight and focused. At the center of it all was lead vocalist Joe McTighe, whose sing/scream/talk approach to the strangely literary lyrics are part of the unique draw of this singular band. Although this show is purportedly the final craw show of this all-too-brief reunion, honestly I can’t imagine that the band won’t keep playing gigs. When something is this good and the fans are calling for more, there’s no reason not to give them more. At least that’s what we hope is the case.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps cards mounted in front of the soundboard and mixed with an excellent feed provided by Vitus’s FOH wiz Nick. The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

craw
2016-03-12
Saint Vitus
Brooklyn NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Nick] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3/tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:16:48]
01 [introduction]
02 Caught My Tell
03 Chop Shop
04 Space Is the Place
05 Unsolicited Unsavory
06 Killer Microbes Devour Cleveland
07 New Plastics Diet Alters Man’s DNA
08 Parasitic Dad Evades Biocops
09 Divinity of Laughter
10 The Adventures of Cancerman
11 Botulism Cholera and Tarik
12 Sound of Every Promise
13 Strongest Human Bond
14 Cobray to the North
15 My Sister’s Living Room
16 To the Child Reader
17 405
18 Elliot
19 [outro]

SUPPORT craw: Website | Buy 1993-1997 | Facebook | Bandcamp

Luna: October 6, 2015 930 Club Washington DC

March 11, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by Matt Condon – courtesy of Chunky Glasses]

Last year was really the goldmine for Luna fans — a lengthy reunion tour with inventive setlists and universally strong playing. The band were happy to be back and it showed. We were pleased to have brought six recordings of Luna’s 2015 concerts to NYCTaper, four of them recorded by our friend Kubacheck.

There have been a couple of nice developments in Luna land this month. Firstly, the band will be doing more concerts, this time a three-show run through Texas in May. We also found out that we’re likely going to be getting some recordings from those shows. Another excellent development is the upcoming release of Britta Phillips‘ first solo album Luck or Magic. The album is due to be released on April 29 and can be pre-ordered through Pledge Music.

In celebration of these fine new developments, we’re posting a show also recorded by Kubacheck from this past Fall. This show at the classic 930 Club in Washington came on the heels of the Atlanta show where the band had performed the complete Penthouse album. This DC show is notable for the minimal amount of stage banter and for a real workman-like but very strong run through the best material from the tour. For a topper, Luna came back out a second time for an encore and delivered a bit of a rarity — a sharp cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch”. We’re hoping the shows upcoming in May will feature the same energy as the Fall tour, and I’m pretty confident they will.

Kubacheck recorded this show in the same manner as the rest of his generous contribution to the site, with his MBHO cards in an advantageous front of board position. The sound quality is excellent. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

Luna
2015-10-06
930 Club
Washington DC

Digital Master Audience Recording
Recorded from Front of Board

MBHO 603a – KA-500 > Naiant Tinybox > Roland R-05 > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (level adjustments, EQ, set fades) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded by Kubacheck
Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:31:44]
01 Slide
02 Chinatown
03 Speedbumps
04 Sideshow by the Seashore
05 Malibu Love Nest
06 Bobby Peru
07 Tiger Lily
08 Tracy I Love You
09 Lost in Space
10 Bewitched
11 Kalamazoo
12 Moon Palace
13 Friendly Advice
14 [encore break]
15 California
16 Time to Quit
17 Twenty Three Minutes in Brussels
18 [second encore break]
19 Season of the Witch [Donovan]

If you Download this recording from nyctaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Luna, visit their website, and purchase their official releases from the links at their website, from Bandcamp and the Long Players Box Set from Captured Tracks Records [HERE].

Wussy: March 4, 2016 Studio at Webster Hall

March 6, 2016

By nyctaper

[photo by Jack Dash]

If you thought that the unqualified success that Wussy achieved as a result of their 2014 year’s best album Attica was the pinnacle of their career, then you’ve joined the long line of people who’ve underestimated this inspiring band. On Friday, Wussy released Forever Sounds and the record takes the band’s sound to higher levels than even the rarefied air of Attica. The opening track “Dropping Houses” is one of the biggest sounding songs the band has ever produced. Chuck Cleaver’s numbers are more confident and aggressive than his recent oeuvre (“She’s Killed Hundreds” and “Gone”) and his material is consistently strong. Lisa Walker continues to be an incredibly versatile performer with a spectrum of songs that draw from everything to hard rock/grunge (the previously mentioned “Dropping Houses”) to folk (the gorgeous “Majestic-12”). In between those poles are what may be her most perfectly realized rock song “Donny’s Death Scene” and her darkest number “Hand of God”. Forever Sounds is also the album where Wussy’s vocals are better than ever, the production is top notch, and the instrumentation is superb. AllMusic says that to call the album a “masterpiece” would be “premature”, but nevertheless its a “deeply satisfying work”. Of all of the positive reviews that have arrived for Forever Sounds, this seems to be the most accurate assessment of this superb record.

As fate would have it, Wussy arrived in NYC on the very day the album was released and played a show at a venue that is perhaps too modest for their current draw, but a place that has been a positive location for the group. We’ve seen them two prior times at The Studio at Webster Hall, and Wussy has played excellent shows each time. But on Friday, all of the planets aligned and Wussy played a show for the ages. The setlist surely consisted of a good dose of the new album (eight of the ten songs were played) but the band also featured some classic material, deep cuts, a cover that we’d seen before (“Ceremony”) and one thoroughly obscure cover. This show was also the longest shows we’ve seen Wussy play — a few seconds longer than the Knitting Factory show in 2014. The packed house seemed to agree, as the band was called back twice for multiple encores.

As we’ve noted often recently, Wussy will return to NYC to play an NYCTaper Presents show at Trans-Pecos on March 30. I can confirm that this show will consist of a very special setlist. And as there is no late night event at Pecos that night, the band will be permitted to play as long as they choose! Tickets are still available [HERE].

I recorded this set with the Schoeps clamped to the soundboard cage and mixed with a soundboard feed superbly done by house FOH David Fine. The result is an outstanding recording. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show [minus banter tracks]:

Wussy
2016-03-04
Studio at Webster Hall
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [Engineer David Fine] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wavs > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:21:37]
01 [introduction]
02 She’s Killed Hundreds
03 Gone
04 Teenage Wasteland
05 Pizza King
06 Sidewalk Sale
07 Better Days
08 To The Lightning
09 [banter – record release]
10 Hello I’m a Ghost
11 Hand of God
12 [banter – Trans-Pecos]
13 Ceremony [New Order]
14 [banter – look]
15 Dropping Houses
16 [interlude]
17 Beautiful
18 [encore break]
19 Donny’s Death Scene
20 [banter – Dag Nasty]
21 Aliens In Our Midst [The Twinkeyz]
22 Pulverized
23 Airborne
24 [second encore break]
25 Rigor Mortis

SUPPORT Wussy: Website | Buy Forever Sounds | Bandcamp

Animal Collective: February 24, 2016 Irving Plaza

February 28, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos courtesy of Will and We All Want Someone blog]

In the early years of the last decade when the speed of the web aligned with the availability of high quality audio files, I went on a binge downloading all of the available Animal Collective live recordings from their page at the Live Music Archive and from various torrent sites. In 2007 I was finally able to see the band live. For the shows I recorded at Webster Hall shows that year, I had expected the band to play the live songs for which I was quite familiar, but those two historic Webster shows were heavy on new songs — my introduction to the material that would eventually become the band’s brilliant breakthrough album Merriweather Post Pavilion. I’m not so sure I was prepared for what would come next. When Animal Collective released MPP to overwhelmingly positive reviews, I recorded the first two shows in New York and the attention we received literally crashed the site. I learned a lot about the potential for this site to reach a large audience but also the mixed bag nature of viral material, and NYCTaper was forever inextricably intertwined with the music of Animal Collective. To this day, the recording for Animal Collective at Manhattan Center has been downloaded over 50,000 times and remains the most circulated of all of our recordings.

In the intervening years, we’ve had intermittent opportunities to capture the band live including some memorable solo shows. There was the secret Glasslands show with Avey Tare and Deakin that introduced us to that amazing venue (RIP) and to the material that would eventually become Oddsac. Our recording of Panda Bear at Governor’s Island in 2010 was so successful that the artist actually released a limited version of the recording as a free bonus download with the album Tomboy. There was a pair of Deakin shows in 2010, a terrific solo show by Avey Tare at Knitting Factory in 2011, and then a full band show at Terminal 5 in 2012. But we’ve never quite captured the magic of the MPP shows and the rabid interest those 2009 recordings generated.

Its now more than decade since my first obsession with Animal Collective and fortunately 2016 finds us both in very good places. The band’s new album is called Painting With and its quite an excellent piece of work and undoubtedly their strongest material since Merriweather Post Pavilion. The tour in support of the album is being played in smaller venues than anything since the small MPP shows and the feel of this tour is similar. There’s an excitement surrounding the band, the album and the shows that harkens back to 2009 and its a great feeling to have back. At Irving Plaza on Wednesday night, Animal Collective played a virtually flawless ninety-minute show that featured most of the new album, one bizarro cover, and several deep cuts from some of the earliest releases. Indeed, the final song of the night “Alvin Row” goes all the way back to the band’s first album, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. The venue was absolutely packed — I was pushed up against the soundboard cage for the entire night — but the crowd was entirely involved in the show. There is literally no yapping at all recognizable on this recording. And the band played off the energy coming from the crowd as this performance was top notch from start to finish. Indeed, the band only took two song breaks as they segued most of the songs from the main set, and the three encore songs flow as one.

The current Animal Collective tour continues throughout the Spring, moving West and then spending much of April in Europe before the band returns to the US in May. There is a show on May 14 in Sayreville NJ that we are going to try to record, but our attendance is not yet confirmed.

I recorded this set with my old Neumann KM-150 hypercardioids (the same mics as Bowery in 2009) from a prime position directly in front of the soundboard on the floor. The sound in the venue was phenomenal and this recording is quite superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show in FLAC or MP3 format at Archive.org [HERE]

Stream the Complete Show:

Animal Collective
2016-02-24
Irving Plaza
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Front of Board Audience

Neumann KM-150s > Sound Devices 744t > 24bit 48kHz wav file > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:31:07]
01 Natural Selection
02 Gnip Gnop
03 Hocus Pocus
04 The Burglars
05 Jimmy Mack [Vandellas]
06 Daily Routine
07 Golden Gal
08 Summing the Wretch
09 On Delay
10 Loch Raven
11 FloriDada
12 [encore break]
13 Bees
14 Lying in the Grass
15 Alvin Row

SUPPORT ANIMAL COLLECTIVE: Website | Buy Painting With | Facebook

NYCTaper Presents: Chris Forsyth & Solar Motel Band at Trans-Pecos – March 19, 2016

February 26, 2016

By nyctaper

Back in December, we brought site-favorite Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band to Trans-Pecos for the first time and the show went so well that we agreed with the artist on the following day to host the Record Release show for the band’s upcoming album at the same great venue in the Spring.

Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band will release The Rarity of Experience on No Quarter Records on March 4, and on Saturday March 19 we will celebrate the release with a terrific bill at Trans-Pecos. Opening the night will be friends of the site 75 Dollar Bill featuring Rick Brown and Che Chen.

Here is the info:
NYCTaper Presents at Trans-Pecos
915 WYCKOFF AVE. QUEENS NY
Chris Forsyth & Solar Motel Band
75 Dollar Bill
Saturday March 19, 2016
8pm Doors
9pm Music
$12 / $15 DOS

L Train to Halsey or M to Myrtle/Wyckoff (no service advisories for either line on this date)

Tickets are On-Sale Now: Ticketfly Link [HERE]

Facebook Invite Page [HERE]

Pre-Order the Album [HERE]

The Rooks: December 5, 2015 Mercury Lounge

February 18, 2016

By nyctaper

[screen shot from this video]

The indie-soul crossover movement of the last decade that included the likes of Sharon Jones and Raphael Saadiq was admirable but would only be truly meaningful if it led to young bands taking up the mantle. This is where The Rooks come in. The band was formed at Wesleyan College in Connecticut. The Rooks moved to NYC in 2013 and began to play gigs that were immediately lauded — their residency at Pianos in January of 2014 is on record as one of the most highly-attended runs that venue has produced. We caught the band during those shows and acidjack noted the band’s obvious talent, appeal and predicted future success. We’re still sticking with that story. In December, I captured The Rooks in a double bill with their friends Lawrence, and the packed sold-out Mercury Lounge confirmed that we’d been right. The band is bigger than ever and with the crowds bursting at the seams, they are poised to move up the ladder to bigger venues and more high profile gigs. The band’s set included tracks from their 2015 EP Wires, a couple of unreleased songs, and three neat covers, including the closing song from an unmentionable artist that tore down the house. Catch The Rooks on tour this Spring including a show at Rough Trade BK on February 27.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted next to the soundboard and mixed with an excellent feed from Mercury’s FOH Alex. Other than a boisterous crowd somewhat noticeable during quieter moments, the sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Show [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Show:

The Rooks
2015-12-05
Mercury Lounge
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard [engineer Alex] + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 45:47]
01 Intermission (Wires)
02 Doubt
03 Nothing Wrong
04 [Lawrence intro]
05 Gin and Juice [Snoop Dogg]
06 Secrets
07 You’re the One
08 Kiss From a Rose [Seal]
09 May Care
10 Bury Me Deep
11 Purple Reign [Prints]

SUPPORT THE ROOKS: Website | Bandcamp | Facebook

Shearwater: February 6, 2016 Mercury Lounge

February 10, 2016

By nyctaper

[photos by PSquared Photography]

I’m a big fan of intelligent and accomplished musicians — the type of people who don’t just play music but thrive at other vocations. Recently we enjoyed the music of fashion icon Preetma Singh, mathematics whiz Kiran Gandhi, composing genius Owen Pallett, award-winning novelist John Darnielle, and others. On Friday at Mercury Lounge, it was Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater, who besides fronting an outstanding band is also a renowned ornithologist, or a bird expert, who has been profiled in Scientific American.

Meiburg’s dual expertise results in some consistent themes in Shearwater’s music. The lyrical content includes many references to nature, with two of the albums actually called Animal Joy and The Golden Archipelago. Last month, Shearwater released their eighth full-length record Jet Plane and Oxbow and its been described as a “protest album” which given current climate science, would seem to be an instinctual reaction for someone in tune with the natural world. At Mercury, the band played eight of the eleven songs on the new album (along with three classics and one cover) and the entire event was truly breathtaking. The show began with a single white light illuminating Jonathan’s face as the band began the set with the album’s opening track “Prime”, a song that offers dual themes of tragic love and a natural world on the precipice of danger. The set continued in dramatic fashion until book-ended by the album’s closing track the somber “Stray Light at Clouds Hill”, a song that shares a lyrical refrain with “Prime” but mourns both human and natural death. For an “encore” (the band never actually left the stage), Meiburg offered a heartfelt tribute to the late David Bowie by pointing out that the album Lodger helped him through some difficult times, before the band broke into a powerful version of “Look Back in Anger”. It was a compelling and appropriate end to what was most certainly one of the best shows we will see all year. Shearwater is currently on tour in Europe but will return to the US in March, including a show back in NYC at Bell House on March 12. Our local readers would be wise to attend that show.

I recorded this set with the Schoeps mounted at the soundboard booth and mixed with an extraordinarily well-mixed board feed by the band’s very talented touring FOH (whose name I did not get, please provide if you know ). The sound quality is superb. Enjoy!

Download the Complete Set [MP3] / [FLAC]

Stream the Complete Set [banter tracks removed]:

Shearwater
2016-02-06
Mercury Lounge
New York NY

Digital Master Recording
Soundboard + Audience Matrix

Soundboard + Schoeps CCM4u Cardioids > Sound Devices 744t > 2 x 24bit 48kHz wav files > Soundforge (post-production) > CDWave 1.95 (tracking) > TLH > flac (320 MP3 and tagging via Foobar)

Recorded and Produced by nyctaper

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:02:44]
01 Prime
02 Filaments
03 [banter – crows]
04 A Long Time Away
05 Rooks
06 [banter – uncomfortable dislocation]
07 Quiet Americans
08 You As You Were
09 Wildlife in America
10 [banter – louder]
11 Pale Kings
12 [band introductions]
13 Backchannels
14 [banter – Lodger]
15 Stray Light at Clouds Hill
16 [banter – thanks]
17 Look Back in Anger [Bowie]

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the Mountain Goats: April 2, 2016 College Street Music Hall, New Haven CT

NYCTaper Upcoming Schedule: Spring/Summer 2016

Shearwater: March 15, 2016 Rough Trade (Bowie’s Lodger album)

craw: March 12, 2016 Saint Vitus

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NYCTaper Presents: Chris Forsyth & Solar Motel Band at Trans-Pecos – March 19, 2016

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